York's Loretta Claiborne still inspires - including a crew recently filming her for ESPN

Frank Bodani
York Daily Record

It's easy to get Loretta Claiborne talking on a Greyhound bus.

This has been her steady mode of travel outside of York for decades. It's been her means to reach so many, her time to observe everything around her and to think of ideas and solutions. 

Often, she drifts away to Special Olympics, her great love. 

Almost always she focuses on ways to weave what she loves into helping others.

That's why ESPN is featuring her in a five-minute clip to air during the Jan. 2 SportsCenter edition (7 to 10 a.m.). Hers is one of the weekly stories honoring the 50th anniversary of the International Special Olympics Games.

A video crew from DC Collective hung out with Claiborne for two days recently in York to put it all together. 

In front of Crispus Attucks, York-born Loretta Claiborne waits as a production crew sets up cameras to film an ESPN special, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. ESPN and Special Olympics have partnered to do a documentary on 50 athletes to celebrate 50 years of Special Olympics. The documentary on Claiborne will air in Dec. 2018.

Each of these 50 stories will showcase someone who is making a profound impact within Special Olympics as a "true game changer."

Who has made more of an impact than York's Claiborne, now 65?

She started life at the lowest rung of privilege in the 1960s: An African-American girl growing up in a housing project, one of seven children raised by a single mother. She couldn't walk or talk and was partially blind as a child. She also was learning disabled and nearly institutionalized. 

Which all makes her life trajectory over the past 50 years so stunning. She grew into an impressive long-distance runner, then morphed into a Special Olympics icon, then a world-wide ambassador for the organization. 

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As she earned a unique fame — mingling with U.S. presidents, winning ESPN's Arthur Ashe Courage Award, having a Disney movie made of her life — she stayed unflinchingly loyal to her hometown and to helping others at every turn.

That giving is what drew ESPN to honor her yet again.

DC Collective researched her well before coming to town. They acquired a Greyhound bus and driver for the day, brought a stash of her beloved York Peppermint Patties and stopped for lunch at Panera Bread.

They shot b-roll of her knitting caps for premature babies as they drove quietly to Gettysburg, chosen for its easy, picturesque ride. The eight-person crew interviewed her as they returned to her personal headquarters at York's Crispus Attucks Community Center.

Loretta Claiborne, a Special Olympics gold medalist, public speaker and the winner of the 1996 Arthur Ashe ESPY Courage Award, waits on the bus prior to filming of an ESPN documentary, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. ESPN and Special Olympics have partnered to do a documentary on 50 athletes to celebrate 50 years of Special Olympics. The documentary on Claiborne will air in Dec. 2018.

The crew constantly adjusted drapes to block window reflections on the bus. They flew a drone to film overhead shots and used one of their five cameras on a chase vehicle.

“I just love buses. I know a lot of people hate buses," Claiborne started, a smile widening. "I see people get on the bus and I look at them, 'Oh boy, it’s going to be a long day on the Hound! That guy is fuming ..."

She laughed loudly at her own story, then quickly quieted.

"You have to have patience," she said. "(The bus) teaches you patience."

She gave of her time happily last week because of the cause. When asked about this latest honor, she offered thankfulness. 

Then she shrugged.

"There's not too many people who are around and still active in Special Olympics 48 years later ..."

How Special Olympics changed her life

She had no idea how this could save her at first.

She was introduced to Special Olympics in 1970, two years after those first international games in Chicago. 

Before that, everything that interested her faded just as quickly as it appeared, like a jazz dance class she reminisced about recently.

"I thought maybe that would be Special Olympics, like everything in my life. It’s here, it’s really nice, I really enjoy it, and then, 'Boom! We can’t do it anymore because no more funding.' "

She was 16 and struggling with school and her job at a workshop for learning disabled. She was frustrated, angry and on the verge of getting thrown out for fighting.

Those first Special Olympics practices, just simple walks and runs around Albemarle Park, allowed her to let off steam and steadied her.

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Everything shifted the following year at the state games in West Chester.  

There, she won each of her events. She went to a dance for the athletes. She stayed overnight with new, far-flung friends.

"I remember seeing all these people and they were all in special ed and none of them called me names, nobody called me bozo or retard or anything. We all had something in common."

When she returned to York, she couldn't stop talking about it. It was if her life's purpose was set aflame.

"That was the turning point. When I would get in a fight or an argument, (a workshop boss) would come out and say, 'Clairborne! Special Olympics!'

"There was no more arguing. There was no more fighting. He would just come out and say, 'Special Olympics.' "

Loretta Claiborne giving back and growing York

She kept knitting and talking as the Greyhound rolled past farm fields a couple of weeks ago.

She'd begin to answer, only to ease away into a personal story, or some window seat observation, before magically circling back to the original talking point. 

Though she's spoken in front of Congress and the United Nations, she delights more in motivational talks at Crispus Attucks and local schools, appearing as often as asked.

When the video crew filmed her jogging, passers-by waved and yelled encouragement as always.

Loretta Claiborne stands in front of the WellSpan Community Health Center Loretta Claiborne Building, on the corner of South George Street and West Boundary Avenue, in York, Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. ESPN and Special Olympics have partnered to do a documentary on 50 athletes to celebrate 50 years of Special Olympics. The documentary on Claiborne will air in Dec. 2018.

"It was like it was scripted, it looked like it was out of a Rocky movie," said Paul Molin, a producer running the filming sessions for DC Collective.

Claiborne uses the money from selling her homemade winter hats and bracelets to buy yarn to make more items to donate to hospitals and shelters. That giving nature and connection to her community is what lured ESPN back.

“She’s got to be one of the most selfless, inspiring people I've ever met. Everything she does is for other people," said Molin, who's worked recently on Special Olympics stories in China, India, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands.

Her celebrity combined with her humility and loyalty to her hometown make her unique, he said.

"Like I asked her, 'You've been all over the world, why are you in York? She's like, 'Why would I leave?'

"She would do anything for this community."

Sydnye White, a Special Olympics senior director from Washington, D.C. was along for the interviews and tours here. She's gotten to know Claiborne over the past year.

"You have to have a lot of energy to keep up with Loretta. You can't walk with Loretta in a straight line. You have to stop. People want to talk to her, people want to get her autograph.

"It surprised me" White said, "that someone with intellectual disabilities can be my role model. Anything I can do, small or big, to give back to my community — that's what I learn from her every day. She finds a way to work giving back into her every day life."

Friends say she never wastes time, and always has it for others, despite a hectic travel schedule. A trip to visit friends in Shanksville became an opportunity to serve Thanksgiving meals at senior and youth centers, make homemade applesauce and decorate a church.

Small, simple gestures over and over.

Even now, a bag full of colored string was propped next to the couch in her home. They will become bracelets. An even larger Santa's sack of yarn skeins sat nearby.

Claiborne said she cannot forget how the Salvation Army provided Christmas gifts for she and her siblings more than 50 years ago. A voucher for new shoes. An apple and an orange, candy and a toy.

So now she teaches knitting to others. She makes Turkey Hill runs for picketing factory workers. She makes golf driver covers for police tournaments.

If you sit a bit, she'll talk about it all.

"I just feel obligated, you give back," she said. "I have two hands. God blessed me with two good hands.

"My mom always said, 'Clean up your own backyard before you go somewhere else and clean up (theirs).' This is my home."